(CNN) - The nation’s largest evangelical Christian umbrella group has come out against San Francisco’s proposed circumcision ban, evidence that the voter initiative is beginning to galvanize national religious opposition.

“Jews, Muslims, and Christians all trace our spiritual heritage back to Abraham. Biblical circumcision begins with Abraham,” said National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson. “No American government should restrict this historic tradition. Essential religious liberties are at stake."

"The proposed ban violates the First Amendment’s guarantee to exercise one’s religious beliefs," Anderson said in a statement.

How much of a national issue the ban becomes is yet to be seen. An effort to put a circumcision ban on the ballot in Santa Monica, California was abandoned last week.

Many Jewish and Muslim groups have come out against San Francisco’s proposed ban on the procedure that removes the foreskins of infant boys.

This is a sensitive, serious issue where good people can disagree and which the Jewish community feels is an assault on its values and traditions going back thousands of years and centered in the Hebrew Bible.

Some involved are simply opposed to religion (there are after all some misguided Jews arguing for the ban as well), some wish to target both Muslims and Jews. But can anyone doubt that there are anti-circumcision advocates who seize on this as a chance to hurt Jews and the Jewish tradition?

Just as the National Association of Evangelicals did Thursday, some Muslim groups have called the ban an attack on religious freedom:

A ban that specifically targets a religious practice of Muslims and that has been proven to be medically beneficial is a violation of First Amendment rights that guarantees all Americans the right to religious freedom.

The proposed ban would make it "unlawful to circumcise, excise, cut, or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles, or penis" of anyone 17 or younger in San Francisco.

Violators could be jailed for a year or fined up to $1,000.

The group that drafted the ban's language says the procedure has adverse physical and psychological effects and likens it to female genital mutilation, a claim that doctors generally reject.

Apart from the San Francisco proposal, circumcisions are under scientific scrutiny.

While widespread in the United States, circumcision rates could be falling, according to recent surveys. About 65 percent of American male infants born in hospitals were circumcised in 1999, according to latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While nationally the circumcision rate has remained steady, the most dramatic decline occurred in the West, where it fell from 64 percent in 1974 to 37 percent in 1999.

Earlier this year, there were unconfirmed estimates that the circumcision rate had fallen to fewer than half for boys born in U.S. hospitals, The New York Times reported last summer, citing a federal report at the International AIDS Conference.

The American Academy of Pediatrics task force on circumcision has been reviewing recent research before it issues an official new position on the issue, probably next year, one panel member said.

"In the past, we've said newborn circumcision has benefits and risks," Dr. Douglas Diekema, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, told CNN last year. "Given the fact that neither the risks nor benefits are particularly compelling, this is a decision to be made by parents."

soundoff(297 Responses)

I hate this kind of government interference. I should be able to have ANY part of my newborn surgically removed.

June 21, 2011 at 11:40 am |

Muneef

Well not every body is able to have his banana be peeled fresh and clean....although they have all the facilities and the hygiene that is required to have it done safely...!

June 14, 2011 at 8:34 pm |

mark

change is eternal and in growth it is times of gradual change and times of faster change. when fast is good it has to slow and it preserves the future formations which change. Good can be good for 20,000 years but it will either change or try to stay the same. if the greater life which cannot be stopped or controled which changes while the good which for 20;000 years has and was always good doesnt change out of ignorance and tries to be the same then that good corrupts and it has to become a destructive actoivity for mankind.

June 14, 2011 at 4:47 pm |

mark

common sense which seven billion people have along with the sciences and all the faiths plus we naturally living our life shows that there is a innate instinctual and intuitive action that is also the same conscious and aware .It is the same continuation of one activity. scince states energy is matter and matter is energy and they are the same. Religion states that god is matter and matter is of god. What we recieve is the only natural thing that we can give out and no thing can create some thing. its common sense. so the question is , do we loose not our body or our mind, but our conscious consciousness which we view our self from our environment and we view our self from within. do we loose our consciousness or do we some how stay in a conscious state like variations of normal wakeing, day dreaming,deep sleep, semi deep sleep or a more active copnscious state that is like a dream. avivid dream and we all know that while asleep and haveing a vivid dream, it is in fact the real real;ity we are conscious of and our body which is very much alive has no conscious impact in that moment of consciousness which is real and it is the only reality for that moment. beginnings and ends are now at a p[oint of advancement in humanity where science basicaly states everything is already in eternity and religion states that everything is already but in a way that if they continue to 8use the same limited books and scriptuires then religion will cause with scoience a change that will become the ignorance of both to not end be3cause that is impossible. Only to be a future of humanity which is either a time of turmoil like now or worse. Our race will go on regardless and as always will deal with change. hard or less hard you cannot avoid change and common sense of a child knows that. happiness is bliss and the only way to klnow it is if less bliss is there. balances.

June 14, 2011 at 4:39 pm |

Muneef

How many abortions took place due to sinful relationship if compared to those died due to this practise?

June 13, 2011 at 10:24 pm |

HotAirAce

A better question might be how many abortions, child mutilations and arranged marriages of 10 year old (ripe) girls would be prevented if believers lived according to their stated club rules?

June 14, 2011 at 2:09 am |

Muneef

What about $ex slavery?

June 14, 2011 at 1:01 pm |

God

Read conversations with God

June 13, 2011 at 9:51 am |

Raymond

Don't read Conversations With God...not sound books.

June 13, 2011 at 11:18 pm |

separate church and state

parents make the decision... not the church and certainly not the state.. what's happening to choice here

June 13, 2011 at 2:21 am |

Oi

Didn't you know? Our freedoms are going out the window left and right. We are becoming more and more a Nanny State country and no one seems to notice much. Shocking, really.

June 13, 2011 at 8:30 pm |

earl

Oh noes, the state has removed your ability to mutilate the genitals of a non-consenting human being. Rabble Rabble.

June 14, 2011 at 1:55 am |

jimfromcalif

In case you haven't figured this out, it is precisely about choice. It's about the boy's choice. It's his penis, not his parents'.

July 2, 2011 at 10:37 am |

HotAirAce

And Foreskin Man and his clear-thinking supporters score another victory over The Evil Cutters...

June 12, 2011 at 8:59 pm |

Muneef

[10:3] Your only Lord is GOD; the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then assumed all authority. He controls all matters. There is no intercessor, except in accordance with His will. Such is GOD your Lord. You shall worship Him. Would you not take heed?

[10:4] To Him is your ultimate return, all of you. This is GOD's truthful promise. He initiates the creation, then repeats it, in order to reward those who believe and lead a righteous life, equitably. As for those who disbelieve, they incur hellish drinks, and a painful retribution for their disbelieving.
-----

[32:4] GOD is the One who created the heavens and the earth, and everything between them in six days, then assumed all authority. You have none beside Him as Lord, nor do you have an intercessor. Would you not take heed?

[32:5] All matters are controlled by Him from the heaven to the earth. To Him, the day is equivalent to one thousand of your years.

[32:6] Knower of all secrets and declarations; the Almighty, Most Merciful.

June 12, 2011 at 7:50 pm |

JAberg123

"There was a roar and a great confusion of noise.
Fires lept up and licked the roof.
The throbbing grew to a great tumult, and the Mountain shook.
Sam ran to Frodo and picked him up and carried him out to the door.
And there upon the dark threshold of the Sammath Naur,
high above the plains of Mordor,
such wonder and terror came on him that he stood still forgetting all else,
and gazed as one turned to stone.

Fire belched from its riven summit.
The skies burst into thunder seared with lightning.
Down like lashing whips fell a torrent of black rain.
And into the heart of the storm, with a cry that pierced all other sounds,
tearing the clouds asunder, the Nazgûl came,
shooting like flaming bolts, as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky
they crackled, withered, and went out."

June 12, 2011 at 8:48 pm |

Muneef

[6:69] The righteous are not responsible for the utterances of those people, but it may help to remind them; perhaps they may be saved.

[6:70] You shall disregard those who take their religion in vain, as if it is a social function, and are totally absorbed in this worldly life. Remind with this (Quran), lest a soul may suffer the consequences of its evil earnings. It has none beside GOD as a Lord and Master, nor an intercessor. If it could offer any kind of ransom, it would not be accepted. They suffer the consequences of the evil works they earn; they have incurred hellish drinks, and a painful retribution because of their disbelief.

[6:71] Say, "Shall we implore, beside GOD, what possesses no power to benefit us or hurt us, and turn back on our heels after GOD has guided us? In that case, we would join those possessed by the devils, and rendered utterly confused, while their friends try to save them: `Stay with us on the right path.' " Say, "GOD's guidance is the right guidance. We are commanded to submit to the Lord of the universe.

[6:72] "And to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), and to reverence Him – He is the One before whom you will be summoned (for the reckoning)."

[6:73] He is the One who created the heavens and the earth, truthfully. Whenever He says, "Be," it is. His word is the absolute truth. All sovereignty belongs to Him the day the horn is blown. Knower of all secrets and declarations, He is the Most Wise, the Cognizant.

June 12, 2011 at 7:45 pm |

Muneef

[6:50] Say, "I do not say to you that I possess the treasures of GOD. Nor do I know the future. Nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I simply follow what is revealed to me." Say, "Is the blind the same as the seer? Do you not reflect?"

[6:51] And preach with this (Quran) to those who reverence the summoning before their Lord – they have none beside Him as a Lord and Master, nor an intercessor – that they may attain salvation.

[6:52] And do not dismiss those who implore their Lord day and night, devoting themselves to Him alone. You are not responsible for their reckoning, nor are they responsible for your reckoning. If you dismiss them, you will be a transgressor.

June 12, 2011 at 7:26 pm |

lilwayne YAYUH!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHRP0I2SrVs&w=640&h=390]

June 12, 2011 at 7:43 pm |

Muneef

lilwayne YAYUH!.

Should admit I liked that about prophecies thing and wish to read about them but are they all in the bible or separate books?

June 14, 2011 at 6:31 pm |

frank

The foreskins of infant boys are the price we pay Yahweh not to zap us with locust swarms! To Him, it is a calamari appetizer, and he demands it with great impatient jealousy!!!

June 12, 2011 at 9:53 am |

Scott Glancy

I'm starting a religion that requires the amputation of children's arms so they won't break them as they grow. No one better interfere with that.

June 12, 2011 at 4:31 am |

Kace

In my religion, we then surgically attach the severed arms around the newborn's skull to prevent concussions. It's mandated in my sacred text so I'm untouchable.

June 12, 2011 at 10:22 am |

Pious Bob, Who Will NOT Let Infidels Destroy Tradition !

In my religion, it is the right and duty of parents to have their sons' Love Mamba cut off at birth and reattached to their forehead. This is the traditional covenant with God, and how dare you heathens and atheists say to is a bad idea! It does not hurt them, and it shows our undying obedience to The Great One. For the girls, tradition and religion demand that they have a scrub brush permanently attached to one hand, a vacuum cleaner to the other, and sponges to their knees so that they can show The Great One their everlasting inferior servitude to The Great One and their husbands. And they must always wear wetsuit hoods to honor the Truth of the One True Religion.

June 12, 2011 at 11:03 am |

JAberg123

I would like to found a religion based on the simple idea that everyone should be literally connected to everyone else. Someone made a movie about this idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Centipede_(First_Sequence)

@Muneef
"In experienced hands, this common, inexpensive procedure is very safe, and can be pain-free."
Tell that to the 100 or so parents in this country who lost their sons last year to the procedure.

June 12, 2011 at 1:58 am |

Muneef

Sean.

In my country is being carried out by haircut barbers but of course has to have a sterilized tools and envirmont,skilled clean hands..it is a sensitive and as painful as cutting the navel cord that connects the baby to his mother....!

June 12, 2011 at 8:45 am |

Islam: The Happy Religion

By haircut barbers?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Are you fukking kidding me?!?!?!?!

BACKWARDS ! ! !

IGNORANT ! ! !

June 12, 2011 at 11:44 am |

The Happy Couple And Their Newborn Son

"It's a boy! It's a boy! This is great!"

"Yes honey, I'm so happy! What should we do now?"

"I think we need to go straight to the barber shop and have is genitals mutilated by someone with no medical training whatsoever."

"Oh yes, that's a great idea. Let's go right now!"

June 12, 2011 at 12:06 pm |

FredR

No wonder so many barbar cut guys grow up to want to commit mass murdr/suicyde.

June 12, 2011 at 6:40 pm |

Muneef

Think Africa does it with an Axe by masses at older age...and who cries is not considered a strong man...! Didn't you know that ?
any way now a days with so many private hospitals it became to be done at hospitals for whom can afford....otherwise a skilled barber for that is cheaper and might prove safer than hospitals some times.
Another thing not relative but ought to be mentioned...people with broken bones or twisted ankles go to butchers for mending and cure...and they trust on those more than hospitals...

June 12, 2011 at 7:01 pm |

Muneef

Sean.
How many died of abortion because of sinful relationship ?

June 13, 2011 at 8:37 pm |

Sean

@Muneef
Is that an argument for circu-mcision? That at least it's better than abortion?

June 14, 2011 at 1:17 am |

Muneef

@Sean.
Yes it is and surely that what I thought...although will doubt them going banning Sinful $ex to avoid abortion rather than encouraging it by introducing the use of condoms...!? But surely easier for them to allow that disregarding it's consequences to their nation while they found it rather easier to ban Muslims from their religious rituals...! The only thing that will effect the children would be the use of contaminated tools or at contaminated place or unhygienic attention for the skin cut to heal kept dry from humidity for less than a week maybe before healing...

June 14, 2011 at 6:46 pm |

Brent Slensker

I WISH it had NEVER been done to me!... Imagine that, State-sanctioned baby mutilation.. The "cleanliness" lie is pure anti-Science BS, the "Abrahamic tradition" is even WORSE BS... Keep the scalpels OUT of your babies pants!!

June 12, 2011 at 12:40 am |

Marie Kidman

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSvqMBj-ig&w=640&h=390]
"

June 11, 2011 at 9:06 pm |

Muneef

So it is now will be as a trade mark for the Jews and Muslims or would it rather go for what is healthier for men??
Circ-um-ci-sion to a Muslim is like Baptism to a Christian...and it might have been circ-um-ci-sion that been modified into baptism being less painful ?? After all tell me why was Jesus circ-um-ci-sed while his believers and followers have not taken it as a practice since their high example was as a Jew descendant was circ-um-cis-ed ??!

June 11, 2011 at 8:38 pm |

Muneef

Why ban what is right and good for leading a long healthy life? Why not have banned all that was wrong and leads to living unhealthy life? Is't it funny that some few prefer to be without being circ-um-c-ised but the strangest is to see them trying to ban forcefully others from being circ-um-c-ised? Hmm unless they want to use it as a lead when a segregating Jews and Muslims out of the whole lot? Why take it religiously when science approved it all beneficial..?

SUMMARY
Circ-umci-sion of males represents a "surgical vaccine" against a wide variety of infections, adverse medical conditions and potentially fatal diseases over their lifetime, and also protects their s-ex-u-al partners. In experienced hands, this common, inexpensive procedure is very safe, and can be pain-free. Although it can be performed at any age, the ideal time is infancy. The benefits vastly outweigh risks.

Medically, it makes as much sense to cut the breasts off of 12-year-old girls to prevent breast cancer. Religiously, it's downright creepy, right down there with selling your daughter into slavery (Biblically sanctioned) and killing ga-ys (Biblical law).

The removal of perfectly functioning tissue is ethically dubious at best, especially when the subject rarely if ever has a say in the matter. If a parent has the right to circ-umcise, then don't they also have the right to Botox their daughters? You should have the right to mutilate your own Mr. Winkie, and feel free to do so, but you should not be able to medically mutilate anyone else – even if he is your child.

"high rates of PTSD among Filipino boys after either ritual or medical circ-umcision."

"There is considerable evidence that newborns who are circ-umcised without a-nalgesia experience pain and physiologic stress."

"P-enile sensation and se-xual satisfaction are decreased for circ-umcised males."

"The foreskin contains the most sensitive parts of the p-enis, noting that these parts are lost to circu-mcision."

The official position of a few national medical agencies:

Australia: "the level of protection offered by circ-umcision and the complication rates of circ-umcision do not warrant routine infant circ-umcision in Australia and New Zealand"

Canada: "Circ-umcision is a "non-thera-peutic" procedure, which means it is not medically necessary"

Netherlands: "conflicts with the child’s right to autonomy and physical integrity."

So Muneef, circ-umcision is NOT "right and good for leading a long healthy life", nor has "science approved it all beneficial." It is a freakish remnant of bronze age ignorance, of NO particular benefit that outweighs its risks, done mosty on people with NO say over their own bodies. Freakish!

Why don't you have yourself castrated to prevent testicular cancer? It's the same idea.

June 11, 2011 at 9:01 pm |

Muneef

Mr.FB

Do not know where you got that but as Muslims we are all fine with it and so satisfied that we can marry up to four women..the issue for men is a must but for women that was not of Islam but some cultural traditions....so you say better to take your head off rather than taking a pain killer? Cowered you just afraid to stand the pain...and rather stay impure rather than pure cleaned... That part is considered as dirty as a Dogs Noses & Tails...Jew before you purified then came Christians who were not purified and then came the Muslims and were purified...so only you remained as the rest of those religiously impure transmitting diseases to every one else...surely now I think Aids did not come from Monkeys but rather given to them .....!!

June 11, 2011 at 9:44 pm |

Mr. Fluffy Bunny

What?!?!?! That made sense to you? WOW ! ! !

Wow, thanks for showing us all the ignorance that keeps freakish things like circu-mcision alive. This is what comes of basing your way of life on the ancient supersti-tions of a bunch of backwards ignorant bearded bronze-age desert zealots in the Middle East.

June 11, 2011 at 9:52 pm |

Hmm

Muneef hates all non-muslims and gets his jollies pretending that he cannot speak good English. I've seen other posts where he speaks as easily as a New Yorker. He is just trolling and spreading lies to confuse the "infidels". Pay no attention to him unless you are bored and are looking for a target. That's why I'm posting this.

June 12, 2011 at 12:23 am |

Reality

Gabriel never existed!!!!!! No Gabriel, no communiques from heaven and therefore Islam has no foundation and no validity as a religion!!!

June 12, 2011 at 12:27 am |

Muneef

Guess you can't win them all.

This is my Religion & Belief.

Kindly read;

[2:0] In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

[2:130] Who would forsake the religion of Abraham, except one who fools his own soul? We have chosen him in this world, and in the Hereafter he will be with the righteous.

[2:131] When his Lord said to him, "Submit," he said, "I submit to the Lord of the universe."

[2:132] Moreover, Abraham exhorted his children to do the same, and so did Jacob: "O my children, GOD has pointed out the religion for you; do not die except as submitters."

[2:133] Had you witnessed Jacob on his death bed; he said to his children, "What will you worship after I die?" They said, "We will worship your god; the god of your fathers Abraham, Ismail, and Isaac; the one god. To Him we are submitters."

[2:134] Such is a com-m-unity from the past. They are responsible for what they earned, and you are responsible for what you earned. You are not answerable for anything they have done.

[2:135] They said, "You have to be Jewish or Christian, to be guided." Say, "We follow the religion of Abraham – monotheism – he never was an idol worshiper."

[2:136] Say, "We believe in GOD, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters."

[2:137] If they believe as you do, then they are guided. But if they turn away, then they are in opposition. GOD will spare you their opposition; He is the Hearer, the Omniscient.

[2:138] Such is GOD's sys-tem, and whose sys-tem is better than GOD's? "Him alone we worship."

[2:139] Say, "Do you argue with us about GOD, when He is our Lord and your Lord? We are responsible for our deeds, and you are responsible for your deeds. To Him alone we are devoted."

[2:140] Do you say that Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs were Jewish or Christian? Say, "Do you know better than GOD? Who is more evil than one who conceals a testimony he has learned from GOD? GOD is never unaware of anything you do."

[2:141] That was a com-m-unity from the past. They are responsible for what they earned, and you are responsible for what you earned. You are not answerable for anything they did.
------

June 12, 2011 at 7:53 am |

Muneef

Hamming Bird.

Muneef does not have hate to no one that he knows in real life nor he does hate on this digital world....all I try is to bring senses to you to use your own minds to evaluate truth from false...God has given us senses to work with us as Balance Scale to figure out the straight path of the Rightous...

My English is modest but might those where I wrote as a Newyorker be my copy&paste quotes from e.mails or webpages...!! Since I know my capacity and would not lie or hide about it...?? As to "Hate" seems you got plenty of it since I can sense it from your words....good bye now since will be cut any time now from electricity as many here in Yemen am running out of diesel fuel for my Electricity generator and my office already out of electricity since morning all staff left office...Guess we are deep down in Sht to hate or jolly over others... ..

June 12, 2011 at 8:19 am |

Muneef

Reality is that I feel sorry for the whole lot of you for not knowing God,feel sorry for your hardened hearts and blind sense all wasted locked unused or sees any thing other than the truth...
There are Atheist's looking for the true being of God and upon any moment of truth they become to God...while there are Atheist's who even if God sent to them a Holy Scripture or seen signs from God they would say that is nothing but Magic trick....those are the lost ones...Which one of those are you " Do you know or no senses to think of where your about's ....

June 12, 2011 at 8:30 am |

Reality

The real Islam:

The Muslim Conquest of India – 11th to 18th century

■"The likely death toll is somewhere between 2 million and 80 million. The geometric mean of those two limits is 12.7 million. "

and the 19 million killed in the Mideast Slave Trade 7C-19C by Muslims.

and more recently

1a) 179 killed in Mumbai/Bombay, 290 injured

1b) Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh

2) 9/11, 3000 mostly US citizens, 1000’s injured

3) The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US troops killed in action, 3,483 and 925 in non combat roles. 99,901 – 109,143 Iraqi civilians killed as of 3/3/2011/, mostly due to suicide bombers, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf

4) Kenya- In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]

5) Bali-in 2002-killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 people were injured.

6) Bali in 2005- Twenty people were killed, and 129 people were injured by three bombers who killed themselves in the attacks.

9) The execution of an eloping couple in Afghanistan on 04/15/2009 by the Taliban.

10) – Afghanistan: US troops 1,141 killed in action, 242 killed in non-combat situations as of 03/03/2011. Over 40,000 Afghan civilians killed due to the dark-age, koranic-driven Taliban acts of horror

11) The killing of 13 citizen soldiers at Ft. Hood by a follower of the koran.

13) The May 28, 2010 attack on a Islamic religious minority in Pakistan, which have left 98 dead,

14) Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on 21 December 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed as a result of a terrorist bomb. In the United Kingdom the event is referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, destroying several houses and leaving a huge crater, with debris causing damage to a number of buildings nearby. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie) were citizens of 21 nations.

15 The daily suicide and/or roadside and/or mosque bombings in the terror world of Islam.

16) Bombs sent from Yemen by followers of the koran which fortunately were discovered before the bombs were detonated.

17) The killing of 58 Christians in a Catholic church in one of the latest acts of horror and terror in Iraq.

19) A Pakistani minister, who had said he was getting death threats because of his stance against the country's controversial blasphemy law, was shot and killed Wednesday, 3/2/2011

20) two American troops killed in Germany by a recently radicalized Muslim, 3/3/2011

21) the kidnapping and apparent killing of a follower of Zoraster in the dark world of Islamic Pakistan.

22) Shariatpur, Bangladesh (CNN 3/30/2011) - Hena Akhter's last words to her mother proclaimed her innocence. But it was too late to save the 14-year-old girl. Her fellow villagers in Bangladesh's Shariatpur district had already passed harsh judgment on her. Guilty, they said, of having an affair with a married man. The imam from the local mosque ordered the fatwa, or religious ruling, and the punishment: 101 lashes delivered swiftly, deliberately in public. Hena dropped after 70 and died a week later.

June 12, 2011 at 11:28 am |

IslandAtheist

How many foreskins does God need?

June 11, 2011 at 4:31 pm |

John Thomas and Lady Jane

Maybe God thinks they go good with beer while he is watching NASCAR on TV.

June 11, 2011 at 5:15 pm |

Hmm

Fried pork skins? hmmm.

June 12, 2011 at 12:24 am |

Religion interferes with health and life

Becusee they want to control what people do. If they are truly accepting of all people, then why can only some people attend their services.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.